Cabpenter s bench



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. W. MAHAN, OF LEXINGTON, ILLINOIS.

CARPENTERS BENCH.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 14,511, dated March 25, 1856.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, J. W. MAHAN, of the townof Lexington and county of McLean and State of Illinois, have invented anew and useful Improvement in what is commonly known as House-Joinersand Cabinet-Makers Work-Benches, and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a clear, full, and exact description of the constructionand operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings,they being a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is an endview of the bench, Fig. 2 a front view of that side of the bench which Icall the jointing box, Fig. 3 is a top view of the same, Fig. 4 is a topview of the table upon and to which the facing and gaging box isattached, Fig. 5 is a front .view of said table and a front view of theback part of said box, Fig. 6 is a top view of the bottom work of thefront part of said box, Fig. 7 is a front view of said box that is ofthe front part.

In Fig. l a a a are the posts, B B B B are the. crossties, (c) the backplate, the back stationary jaw, (e) the board to be jointed, (y) themovable jaw, (g) the front plate, (H) the movable bottom of the jointingand gaging box, (i) the raising wedge, (J) the table board, (7c) thepivot on which the eye of the connecting rods work, (Z Z) the planebearings, (m) the end of the jointing plane, (n n) the plane slides, (o)an iron plate across the end of the plane to which the slides (n n) areattached by the temper screws (p p), (g) is an iron weight, (R) is acord, (s) a pulley, (t) a lever to which the cords (R) are attached at(2) said lever works on a joint at (20) (g) the end of the table board,is an arm which is fastened to the outside sill of the facing andgagingv box and on top of which is securely fastened the jaw this armpasses immediately under the inside jaw and through a mortise in theside or back sill of the said box the inside jaw (m) is securelyfastened to the inside sills (8) is the board placed in the rightposition to be faced (9 9) are the screws to raise-the plates (l0-10)(these screws seen in Fig. 5 and marked m m) on these plates the planebearings are fastened, (11) yis the plane, (12) is the arm which passesthrough the plane.

In Fig. 2 a a a a are the posts, (Gr) the front plate, the lmovablebottom the raising wedges (J J) the table boards (Z) the plane bearing(30) a cross bar (31) a cross bar (O) a lever (p) a pivot on which saidlever works (g-g) the connecting rods, (1') a mortise, I-I a lever'seenin Fig.v 3, (0 o) a circle iron made fast by duck feet at (2-2) on thescale board (2-2).

In Fig. 3, (c) the back plate, d the back jaw, (F) the movable jaw, (H HH H) the levers (g) the front plate in Fig.' 4, (a) is the top of thetable (5 5) cord holes, (c2-.0) mortises.

In Fig. 5 (a, a, a) the lags, the cross bar, (c) the edge of the table,d the sill,

(0 0 o) the mortises, (e, e) cord holes, (m)

the jaw, (fnJ n) are arms or tenons which fasten into the plate (10) andwork in the mortises (c c), (m m) are the raising screws aFnd pass upthrough the table sill as seen in In Fig. 6, (D) is the sill, the jaw,(o o o) arms, (n n) the mortises.

In Fig. 7, (D) is the sill, (n n) the tenons, (m m) the screws (l0) theplate, (11) the plane bearing.

Now in order to enable any one skilled in the art to manufacture'and usemy invention I will proceed to describe the same.

You will bear in mind that the main features in the construction of thisbench are these: In the rst place one side is constructed into a framedbox of convenient length 8% ft. high^8 inches wide in the inside. Theposts and crossties in the bents of said framed box are to be made outof pine wood and 4 inches square. There are' to be 4 bents in the box.On the top of the posts in each bent there are to be tenons cut toreceive the top plates of the box which have mortises to suit saidtenons. To more fully understand this see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the lefthand side of Fig. l and Fig. 2 represents the jointing box. In framingin the cross ties or girders they should beframed so that the jointingbox will be 22inches deep. There is also to be a bar put on each side ofthe jointing box as will be seen by referring to Fig. 2 in drawingsletter, represents the front bar (in the bottom of said box there is tobe placed a movable bottom (H) see Fig. 2 in drawings, this bottom to bemade of light and solid wood and so constructed that it will not beliable to spring on the back top side of this bottom. There is to be aboard fastened 1 inch wide. The use of this will be seen by referring todrawings Fig. 1, (d) the back jaw. 29 represents this board on thebottom. This board on the movable bottom is to keep the board which isto be jointed which is marked in the drawings (E) square with the top ofthe box. The boards to be jointed are held fast to the back 8 back topboard of the bottom by the movable or clamp jaw (F) which opens andcloses by the levers (H H H H) 3 of which are sho'rt levers framed intothe clamp jaw (F) and front plate (g) the other lever is to be 292 ft.long and is used in opening and clamping the jaw, see Fig. 3 indrawings. These levers work in wide mortises and are fastened by pins asseen in Fig. 3 to open the jaw, move the long lever to the left to clampthe jaw, move to the right when the jaw is open it will make a space of3% inches wide when closed a space or opening of of an inch in jointing3 boards 1 inch thick. Each of soft wood may be jointed at once theplane bearings are placed on top of the plates they are to be inch thickthe back bearing to be 4 inches wide the front bearing 6% in. wide to bemade of hard wood and screwed on with wood screws to be counter sunk ifnecessary to cast iron dressed facings may be put on.

I will now describe the manner in which the bottom is raised see Fig. 2.

H H is the movable bottom, (I, I) are the table boards, (i are theraising` wedges. The table boards are made 9 inches wide 19; inchest-hick and set on the crossties as seen in Fig. 2. The wedges (7L, 7L.)are made of hard wood of length and taper to suit the height to beraised and to be 9 inches thick, to be held to these places by a board 1inch wide put on each side of the table boards, or in other words thetable`boards are boxed, the side being 1 inch high the wedgemoving backand forth in said boxes in raising and lowering the bottom of thejointing box. There is a box of proper size fastened on the middleposts, see Fig. 1 the bar (m), this bar to be on the outside as seen inthe drawings. The lever (o) works on a point at (p). There is 2connecting rods made of iro-n of proper size which attach the wedges toeach end of said lever as represented in drawing Fig. 1. These rods havean eye in each end of them. The ends. attached to the wedges work onpoints which fasten on t-o the ends of the wedges as seen in drawings.The connecting rods are marked (g g). They also work on the ends of thelever by pivots. Immediately back of the top of this lever, as seen inthe figures in drawing, is fastened a board inch thick and proper widthand length upon which a circle is struck (this scale board is marked 22see drawings Fig. 2), on lwhich a scale of feetand inches is laid oif.This scale is got by raising the bottom (which is done by moving thelever to the left) one inch at a time or inch then mark the board inorder to hold this lever to its place so as to prevent the .bottom fromsett-ling. There is a mortise cut through the lever which is over aniron circle which stands out a half inch from the scale board andfastened at each end to said board by duck feet, a thumb screw passesimmediately in to said mortise on to said iron circle. I will nowdescribe the j ointing plane. Said plane is made like unto an ordinaryplane with a butt to cut 3 inches. On each side of said plane there is aslide 111i inches square set up above the face see Fig. 1 in drawings(slides n Across each end of the plane on the top 2 inches back fro-mthe end there is a cast iron plate which projects over each side (saidplate marked 0 in Fig. 1) of the stock 2 inches. There is a nut cutthrough each end through which a thumb screw passes and to the lowerends of which the slides fasten, see the drawing Fig. 1. The design infastening the slides thus is to set the plane to joint the edge of aboard beveling and also to square it with the jointing box. It will nowbe seen that when the board in the ointing box is planed oif until theplane slides come down to the casings that it must be straight andsquare with the face of the same, the box being square. The second mainfeature in the construction of said bench is to attach a peculiarlyconstructed self adjusting box onto the table of the bench, this table,an end view of which is seen in Fig. 1 and is marked in drawing Fig. 1(u) and in Fig. 4 which is a top view the table is marked (a). This boxI call the facing and thicknessing box and is constructed in t-heVfollowing man ner: The parts of the table on which or to which this boxis attached are made with these cross ties and end plates 4 inchessquare, the top l-ll; inches thick. On the front edge of this table, seedrawing Fig. 1, is placed a sill 6 inches back and parallel with it isplaced another sill, these sills to be 4 inches square. There is to be 3mortises cut into said sills 2 inches wide and 4 inches long. Tounderstand this see drawing Fig. 5. The mortises in the front sill aremarked (0 o o). The mortises in the back sill are immediately back ofthose in the front one. The outside sills which forms the outside of thebox is to be 4 inches square and to have 3 arms fastened into it and ofa size to fit said mortises. The understand this see the sill arms indrawing Fig. 6, also the sills and arm in drawing` end view Fig. 1. Itwill now be seen that the board to be faced is securely held to itsplace in the rabbet of the jaws w of the jointing box by the weights oneof which is represented in end view drawing Fig. 1, drawing the boxtogether by means of the cords which pass up through the table board andpass over pulleys to the right, pass on over said board (a) throughholes in the inside sills and under the jaws (m), and lfasten to thefront sill y. Jaws are to be of hard wood of an inch square and securelyfastened to the outside sill immediately on top of the arms, as seen indrawing Fig. l, the inside or the back jaw to the front back sill, asseen in said figure, there is also a lever under the boX working` in amortise in a piece of lumber which is fastened to the table, from theouter end of said lever there is 2 cords, the

one passing to the right, the other to theY left, up over a pulley eachas seen in end view Fig. l and back over the weight pulley and fastensto the weights. By setting the left foot on this lever and bearing downthe weights are raised so that the jaws may be opened. These weights tobe of iron, to weigh 40 lbs. each. On top of these sills of the jointingbox the plates are placed upon which the plane bearings are fastened.These plates to be of proper size to be raised and lowered to suit thethickness of stuff by screws or wedges similarly constructed t-o thoseused in raising and lowering the bottom of the jointing box, theseplates to be held on to the sills by tenon arms as shown in drawingFigs. 5 and 7. The raising screws are also shown in said figures. I willnow describe the plane. The plane is an ordinary one with 2 arms of woodpassing through it by means of mortise, these arms to be of a length tosuit the width of box, said arms to be 2 inches wide and lli inchesthick, to be made of hard wood, the back arm to pass through to theplane in the manner represented in additional drawings Fig. l0. Infacing lumber the plane is moved by the operators back and forth overthe lumber until the arms come down to the bearings. W'hen it is out ofWinder and straight along the face the object in putting the back armthrough the plane as represented in additional drawing Fig. l is to keepit from hitting the side ofthe operator, as in planing it is wellknown'that the plane is drawn back just fast enough for the handle to beon a line with the center of the body. On the right hand connecting rodnear the top where it attaches to the lever there is to be placed aswivel nut Fig. 2 marked g, which is to regulate the bottom of thejointing boX that is to make it rise so that each end of the box will beof equal depth. Say you raise the bottom to make it ofv a given depthbut the wedges being out of order one end or the other is too high ortoo low. This is remedied by turning this nut back or forth so as tolengthen or shorten said rod.

Now the advantage that I claim that my bench possesses over any other isthis-that any man can dress out the most perfect lumber without gage orbysquare and at the same time in a few months practice do the work of 2men who are skilled in the ordinary-way of doinor the same. This benchcan be used by cabinet maker or house joiners, to .be made of sizes andlengths to suit convenience.

I do notl claim the principle of running a plane with slides on it in aboX or the slides on the edges of a box, but

I claim as my invention-the construction of a work bench substantiallyas shown by my model drawings and specification together with thepeculiar construction of the planes for jointing and facing. Y

J. W. MAHAN. Witnesses:

WM. C. GALLET, I. ALLisoN HAND.

